The Bill proposes to ban single-use vapes and creates a framework to achieve this. The ban will be in effect within six months of the commencement of section 7 of the Act, as the Minister said. I support this Bill because it is simple in what it seeks to achieve, which is to ban single-use vapes. I will offer my opinion on, and a critique of, the Government's wider approach to this issue. I will first talk about single-use vapes. We are already seeing the industry attempting to get around these measures. We have seen that in Britain where vapes have become rechargeable, even though they are still single use. There are at all times attempts by industry to circumvent the Act. This is the problem. We have a Government that has never got ahead of this problem and has taken a piecemeal approach. I was a member of the Oireachtas health committee when the original Bill on vaping came before it. We raised issues about single-use vapes, flavouring, advertising and other issues. No such measures were included in the Bill that was before us at the time. We were told that a parallel Bill was being worked on. Ever since, the legislation has not been satisfactory and we have seen the piecemeal approach. All the while, the industry is watching and trying to get ahead of the Government, which is not too difficult, given its piecemeal approach. We in the Oireachtas need to ensure we are setting regulations in a timely manner, are ahead of the industry and are not always falling behind and playing catch-up. I make that point because it is a reality from my perspective and needs to be said. We must protect children and limit the impact that vaping has on them. I know, and everybody else in the House knows, that the industry is cleverly targeting coloured and flavoured vapes and packaging at children. This has been going on for far too long. Obviously, bans on advertising are part of the solution. We need to limit flavours. However, I think there is a rush in this House too often to ban everything and not to consider a more balanced approach. I have spoken to many vapers over the course of the past number of years, and particularly in recent months as Bills such as this have come before us. I know there are different opinions as to whether vaping is a step down from smoking and whether it is something that is a good aid to act as a replacement for smoking. I think that if somebody who was smoking long term switched to vaping, it would be a better option. I would obviously want a person to neither smoke nor use a vape. That is the ideal scenario. However, we must be grown up and accept that people smoke and use vapes. We must ensure that we take a balanced approach. I do not believe that banning every other flavour and moving to a tobacco-flavoured option is a balanced approach. It could create more problems. I know from talking to people who vape that they would see that approach as over the top and a typical reaction whereby we rush to ban everything rather than listening to people who vape. My primary concern in relation to everything we do is protecting children and ensuring that by way of controlling sales, advertising, flavouring and packaging, we do everything possible to limit the ability of the industry to target children in the very obvious way it does. Any measures or Parts of a Bill that come before me and do that will have my full support and that of my party. I have, as I said, a concern about the lack of consistency from the Government and its lack of coherence. This is the third Bill, as I understand it, in the past three years. We are expecting at least one more Bill and possibly another. There is at least one more Bill coming. It is not the most coherent way to deal with a matter as substantial as this. I will be supporting this Bill because it is clear and simple in what it does. I would, however, caution the Government and the Minister of State by saying that we must watch out because the industry is already trying to get ahead of this. It is looking at laws such as this and finding ways around them. That is unacceptable. We must ensure that laws can be changed quickly if they need to be, by way of amendments, to ensure that we stay ahead of any attempt to circumvent the intent of this Bill and do not fall behind.

Sentiment score: 0.06